My response to Ed Miliband's request to join him and Labour - their lies, hypocrisy and arrogance

Labour really do not learn, do they?

Repeatedly, various Labour folk are inviting Lib Dems, sometimes angry Lib Dems to join the Labour Party.

Now Ed Miliband, their new leader (who has been around and part of the previous government for years) is trying to entice Lib Dems to join him in the new re branded Labour Party.  We've heard all this nonsense before though.

Ed Miliband has already laid out the welcome mat for Lib Dems back in August, it didn't work back then.

His brother David, also tried to invite me and other Lib Dems in September to join the Labour Party - you can read my response to him HERE.

Before that we had Derek Simpson of the UNITE Union trying to get Lib Dems to rip up their membership cards and join Labour, I explained to him why I wouldn't be doing so.

This is the Labour Party that they wanted me to join, the same Labour Party who;

through their reckless borrowing have left us with huge debts and daily payments of £120 million (yes, that is correct per day), that's just to cover the interest payments on their loans!

think it's acceptable for their deputy leader, Harriet Harman MP to personally insult other MPs!

are close to bankruptcy themselves with debts of £20million!

were proud to introduce tuition fees for students!

were complete hypocrites over NHS Direct - Labour planned to scrap it and replace it with a 111 service yet criticised the coalition for doing the same!

took us to an illegal war in Iraq wasting billions and billions of our taxes!

raised pensions by just a mere 75p a week!

So, when I think back over the last thirteen years and the damage Labour did to this country, no, I will not rip up my membership card - in fact I have just renewed my membership, with an increase in my monthly direct debit - nor will I leave the party and join Labour.

Already the Lib Dems in Government have achieved;

restoring the earnings link to pensions

taking 900,000 people out of paying income tax from April 2011

the ending of child detention

the scrapping of the third runway at Heathrow airport

Four major achievments in just six months, you can read more about what the Liberal Democrats have achieved through being part of the Coalition Government HERE.

The more Labour target us to join them, the more they target our voters the more determined we will become to fight their lies, their hypocrisy and their arrogance.

David Miliband quits conference; Shadow Cabinet next?

So, David Miliband has quit the Labour Conference early following a spat with Harriet Harman.

Will David Miliband even bother to serve in his brother's cabinet, the signs are not looking good, with only 19 hours until nominations close there is no sign of any paperwork from David, now back home in Primrose Hill, London.

Although David stayed in Manchester for Ed's speech, he was spotted by an ITV camera apparently snapping at Harriet Harman.


As Ed Miliband criticised the war in Iraq at the podium, David turned to the party's deputy and said: "You voted for it, why are you clapping?"

Harriet Harman apparently replied: "I am clapping because as you know, I am supporting him."

The Ed versus David saga is not going away and it will take labour's best spin doctors to sort this one out.

David Miliband does not understand the Liberal Democrats or their voters

The Labour leadership race has highlighted the sheer hypocritical views that the five contenders have.

They voted for the illegal war in Iraq to take place and for the billions of pounds to be spent wasted on that same war and yet now they want to be leader some of them have distanced themselves so far away from the decision you would think they voted with the Liberal Democrats at the time.

More recently we have seen the blatant lies and sheer hypocrisy about the reorganisation of NHS24, being replaced by NHS111, despite this being a Labour Party manifesto pledge both John Prescott and Andy Burnham went on the attack against the Liberal Democrats/Conservative coalition government.

They are taking people for fools in opposition in much the same way as they did in Government and unfortunately many people are still believing their shameful lies.

How do these Labour politicians live with themselves when they blatantly try to deny the last thirteen years when they were in government?

Well today we see David Miliband interviewed on Politics.co.uk and already we see he has no understanding of the Liberal Democrats nor of their core supporters.

Mr Miliband believes Lib Dem tensions hold the key to bringing down the government, but his comments may come as a surprise to the party's left-wing figurehead Jon Cruddas, who endorsed David Miliband over Ed Miliband last month.

Jon Cruddas said just last month;

"Attacking the Liberals is wrong. There's a danger of us spraying too much lead across the forecourt and not really thinking about how we need to regroup,"

Liberal Democrats and their voters know that they disagree with some of the announcements made by the conservative part of the coalition government, however they also know that things would be much, much more right wing if the Liberal Democrats were not part of this coalition government.

900,000 people will no longer pay income tax, the ending of child detention and reform of the political system with a referendum on fairer votes for starters.

Going into the election the Liberal Democrats made clear that they had four key priorities: fairer taxes; a fair start for children with extra funding for disadvantaged pupils; a comprehensive clean up of our politics, including a fairer voting system; and a green, sustainable economy.


Thanks to Lib Dem involvement, the Coalition Government will deliver on each of these.

There are also a large number of other Lib Dem policies and pledges that will now begin to make a real, positive difference to people’s lives because of our role in the Coalition Government.
These include everything from rolling back the surveillance state and giving people back their civil liberties, to prison and NHS reforms, fairer pensions, the ending of child detention and the scrapping of the third runway at Heathrow.

You can read more about what the Liberal Democrats in Government have achieved HERE.
 
So, David Miliband we will not take lessons from you with your 13 years amnesia problem nor will you split our Party.

Ed Miliband MP lays out welcome mat for Lib Dems and concedes defeat in leadership race

This evening I have begun to wonder if the Labour leadership race had finished because Ed Miliband MP seems to have a lot of spare time on his hands talking to Liberal Democrats.

Instead of making up stupid stories perhaps he should concentrate on persuading Labour Members to vote for him.

Aha.

Now I get it, he is admitting he has lost already and therefore conceding defeat in the Labour leadership race hence why he now has time to start talking to the media about made up stories about the Liberal Democrats.

Yesterday we had the nonsense about the supposed defection to Labour of Charles Kennedy MP - to which Charles has responded that he would;

"go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket"

Today we have Ed Miliband MP saying that;

"I also know that there is widespread unhappiness among Liberal Democrat MPs. I think the idea that everyone is hunky-dory with what's going on is wrong.


"I am not going to start predicting who is going to defect and when they might do so, but I think there is a real chance for us to show that this coalition is going in the wrong direction as far as Lib Dem MPs are concerned - and as I say, the welcome mat is out."

So I am therefore not surprised that Ed Miliband MP, David Miliband MP and even Derek Simpson of Unite have all tried to intimidate and cajole Liberal Democrats to join Labour.

I am however amazed that any of these three chaps have the gall to attempt to persuade Lib Dems to defect given their behaviour towards not only Charles Kennedy  during the Iraq war but the Party over the last thirteen years, but then when did hypocrisy ever stop the Labour Party or Unions before.

Just look at the illegal war in Iraq that Labour MPs supported and voted for and yet now those in the Labour leadership race are distancing themselves from the decision to go into war. Hypocrites.

Let us also remember that it was Labour that stopped the rainbow coalition government being formed because of their refusal to work with the SNP, also in reality bringing so many parties together would not have had a balanced or steady work flow to achieve anything whereas the grown up approach of both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives has already seen dividends.

Also, how many Lib Dems would have been unhappy about us forming a coalition with Labour/SNP/Plaid/Green/DUP etc etc?

Don't get me wrong, I am not in favour of the Conservative Party (nor ever will I be) and I will be doing everything in my power over the next nine/ten months to beat them in every constituency and region across Scotland to get Tavish Scott as First Minister and the Liberal Democrats as the Government of Scotland.

There will be policy announcements and changes that my moral compass doesn't agree with, but very few people join a political party because of just one individual thing, as even Ed Miliband very well knows.

I wasn't overly happy about the VAT increase - but I would rather justify that than the murder of innocent Iraqi's.

I am a Liberal Democrat, proud of being so and proud that we are in government now achieving real results like scrapping ID cards, ending child detention, voting reform, an elected second chamber and taking 900,000 out of paying any income tax for starters.

I am however, very unhappy that we are having to waste time sorting out and paying for the Labour Party's frivolous attitude to spending public money (and their own) over the last thirteen years.
So, no I won't be wiping my feet on Ed Miliband's welcome mat, he can shove that request up where the sun don't shine!

Ed Balls MP considering quitting the Labour leadership race

The Telegraph is running a story that Ed Balls is considering quitting the Labour leadership race because Britain's biggest union, Unite has backed Ed Miliband MP.

A source at Unite, which has 950,000 members who are eligible to vote in the leadership election, said: "The discussion before the vote was very much whether it should be Ed Miliband or Ed Balls. Ed Miliband won so clearly because it was thought he was the candidate best placed to be able to defeat his brother."

Ed Balls had been hoping to win Unite's backing, especially given that his close ally is Charlie Whelan who is Unite's political director – but only secured four votes compared to Ed Miliband's twenty four.

Photo: BLOOMBERG

The decision has left Ed Balls contemplating withdrawing from the fray and backing either Ed Miliband or his brother David, the former foreign secretary, who remains the bookies' favourite.

The fight now looks to be a straight two horse race between David Miliband and his brother Ed, after Ed Miliband secured the backing of three of the four largest unions, Unite, Unison and the GMB.
Each has well over 100 nominations from constituency parties – David with 151 and Ed with 140 – well ahead of the number obtained by the three other candidates, Mr Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott.

However, a senior Labour source said: "It's hard to see where Ed Balls's campaign goes from here. He faces some tough choices in the next few days."

Ladbrokes has cut their odds on Ed Miliband winning the leadership battle from 7/4 to 6/4 after yesterday's result amid a general sense of momentum building up behind the younger sibling. While David Miliband remains the favourite, his odds were lengthened from 4/7 to 4/6.
Ed Miliband last week won the key support of ex-leader Lord Kinnock as well as the backing of Baroness (Elizabeth) Smith, widow of the late John Smith, Lord Kinnock's successor as party leader.

John McDonnell withdraws from Labour leadership battle

John McDonnell has withdrawn from the Labour leadership battle with a matter of hours before nominations close.

John McDonnell had just 16 nominations at the time of his withdrawl, less than half the number required to go through to be included on the ballot paper.

John McDonnell is hoping that by adding his 16 nominations to the 11 that Diane Abbott already has that she can then get the final 6 needed to go through onto the ballot paper.

Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband all have at least the 33 nominations required and Andy Burnham is now claiming that he also has 33 nominations.

Explaining why he was pulling out of the race, John McDonnell said:

"I stood for the Labour leadership as the candidate of the Left and trade union movement so that there could be a proper debate about Labour's future in which all the wings of the party were fully represented.

"It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper."

Yesterday, acting Labour leader Harriet Harman said she was nominating Diane Abbott because she did not want to see a "men-only" contest where there has been wide spread criticism within the Labour party of the similarities between the perceived three main candidates, Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and David Miliband, who are already through to the next stage of the election - because they are all Oxford-educated men in their 40s, who worked as political advisers before becoming MPs and then cabinet ministers.


Let's see if Diane Abbott pulls it off.

South Shields by-election?

The Westminster bubble/village rumour mill is a busy one this lunchtime.

Is David Miliband MP about to stand down to become the new EU Foreign Minister and create a by-election in the South Shields seat?